CD Review: Marco Benevento

Keyboard ace Marco Benevento's Woodstock Sessions is a joint release between Kevin Calabro's Royal Potato Family and Applehead Recording studio's Woodstock Sessions imprint. It is the latest release in Applehead's excellent series—live, in-studio performances in front of small audiences who pay handsomely for the privilege and receive a great meal, some hang time with the artists, and mementos including a finely recorded live record. It's a novel idea, and very well executed. Woodstock Sessions finds Benevento in his familiar mode as a solo artist—clowning ringleader of a psychedelic-electro cabaret, presiding over a fritzy and cartoonish fusion of rock songs, good jamming, and insistent electrobeat grooves (a joint venture between Benevento's beatboxes and the great drummer and Tom Waits alum Andrew Borger). Feels great, sounds great. Perhaps the only real surprise here is how comfortable Benevento is becoming as a vocalist, a job he began broaching only a few years ago. Woodstocksessions.com.

The Moonlights, a debut musical collaboration for families, is making the rounds at a series of live performances, including two of the upcoming Sunday Brunch at the Falcon in Marlboro.

With its open-air format, where attendees picnic in the parks and watch the stars emerge during performances, and its $5 youth tickets, the Phoenicia International Festival of the Voice is the perfect place to share with children a love of music and theater, in a variety of styles.